Changi (television)
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''Changi'' is a six-part
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
n
television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
miniseries In the United States, a miniseries or mini-series is a television show or series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. Many miniseries can also be referred to, and shown, as a television film. " Limited series" is ...
broadcast by ABC TV in
2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...
. It originally aired from 14 October 2001 to 18 November 2001.


Overview

The series follows the trials and tribulations of six fictional Australian soldiers interned at the Changi prisoner of war camp in
Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. ''Changi'' is presented as a
frame story A frame story (also known as a frame tale, frame narrative, sandwich narrative, or intercalation) is a literary technique that serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, where an introductory or main narrative sets the stage either fo ...
, with six older war veterans reuniting in 1999 to share their experiences and memories of their time as young men at the camp. The series is also notable for featuring scenes of
toilet humour Toilet humour or potty humour is a type of off-colour humour dealing with: defecation (including diarrhea and constipation), in which case it is called scatological humour (compare scatology); urination; flatulence, in which case it is called f ...
and
black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...
in an otherwise serious production, a deliberate inclusion on the part of writer John Doyle, better known for his comedic alter-ego Rampaging Roy Slaven. Doyle originally envisaged the series as a sitcom with the working title of ''Worn Out & Weary'' and he first pitched the idea to the ABC as such. It was only later in the writing phase that he decided to switch to drama, albeit with elements of humour remaining as a prominent feature. A total of 53 sets had to be built for the miniseries, standing in for the camp, parts of Singapore and the Malayan jungle. The series was shot in four locations and in studio sets around
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
. The ABC invested AUD 6 million (USD ) on the production, a figure representing one-sixth of the ABC's annual drama budget. Two cast members portraying the older versions of the main characters previously served in World War II.
Bud Tingwell Charles William Tingwell AM (3 January 1923 – 15 May 2009), known professionally as Bud Tingwell or Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, was an Australian actor. One of the veterans of Australian film, he acted in his first motion picture in 1946 and we ...
served as a fighter pilot while Slim DeGrey was actually imprisoned as a
POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...
at the Changi camp after the
fall of Singapore The fall of Singapore, also known as the Battle of Singapore, took place in the South–East Asian theatre of the Pacific War. The Empire of Japan captured the British stronghold of Singapore, with fighting lasting from 8 to 15 February 1942. S ...
to the Japanese. The series was directed by
Kate Woods Kate Woods is an Australian film and television director who has directed and produced mini series, television shows, pilots and feature films. Career In 1984, Woods became the first female to direct for the Australian Broadcasting Corporati ...
who, at the time, was best known for directing the successful Australian film ''Looking for Alibrandi'' (2000) and who, in more recent years, has become a successful television director in the United States.


Cast

* Old David Collins -
Charles 'Bud' Tingwell Charles William Tingwell Member of the Order of Australia, AM (3 January 1923 – 15 May 2009), known professionally as Bud Tingwell or Charles 'Bud' Tingwell, was an Australian actor. One of the veterans of Australian film, he acted in his fir ...
* Young David Collins -
Matthew Newton Matthew Joseph Newton (born 22 January 1977) is an Australian actor, writer, and director, and son of Australian TV personalities Bert and Patti Newton. He made his motion picture debut in 2000 in the Australian film ‘ Looking For Alibrand ...
* Old Gordon - Frank Wilson * Young Gordon - Anthony Hayes * Old Bill Dwyer -
Terry Norris Terry Norris may refer to: * Terry Norris (boxer) Terry Wayne Norris (born June 17, 1967) is an American former boxer, prizefighter and a three time world champion in the light-middleweight (super-welterweight) division. Originally from Lubbock ...
* Young Bill Dwyer -
Leon Ford Leon Ford is an Australian actor who has appeared in many television and theatre productions. He is best known for his roles in the television series ''The Cooks'', ''Changi'' and the telemovie ''Stepfather of the Bride''. Early life Ford att ...
* Old Curley - Slim DeGrey * Young Curley - Mark Priestley * Old Eddie -
Bill Kerr William Henry Kerr (10 June 1922 – 28 August 2014) was a British and Australian actor, comedian and vaudevillian. Born in South Africa, he started his career as a child actor in Australia, before emigrating to Britain after the Second World W ...
* Young Eddie -
Stephen Curry Wardell Stephen Curry II ( ; born March 14, 1988) is an American professional basketball player and point guard for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "Chef Curry", he is widely regarded as the ...
* Old Tom -
Desmond Kelly Desmond Anthony Carl Kelly (2 July 1936 - 29 April 2023) was a Sri-Lankan-born Australian musician and actor who has entertained in Sri Lanka and in Australia. Songs on Radio Ceylon Kelly was one of a group of musicians who were discovered by R ...
* Young Tom - Matthew Whittet * Major Dr Rowdy Lawson - Geoff Morrell * Lieutenant Aso - Tsushima Gotaro * Colonel Nakamura - Misawa Shingo * Old Kate -
Jill Perryman Jill Perryman (born 30 May 1933) is an Australian retired actress, singer and dancer with a career that spanned 70 years. Perryman is from a family of show business performers; her sister was actress Diana Perryman and her son is media persona ...
* Young Kate - Mary Docker * Ken -
John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007. He held office as leader of the Liberal Party of Australia. His eleven-year tenure as prime min ...
* Nerida -
Sacha Horler Sacha Horler is an Australian actress. She was born on 12 February 1971. Her parents were lawyers, but co-founded Sydney's Nimrod Theatre Company in the early 1970s. Early life and education Sacha Horler graduated from Sydney's National I ...
* Betty & Joanne - Katherine Slattery * General Tanaka - Ken Senga * Captain Shindo - Ishihara Tatsumi * Dr Hurrell - Peter Carroll * Old Vi - Marie Armstrong * Young Vi - Rebecca Murphy * Todd - Simon Maiden * Lisa -
Nadine Garner Nadine Lynette Garner (born 14 December 1970 in Knoxfield, Melbourne) is an Australian actor who started her career as a teen performer. Biography Garner first came to public attention in 1985, as Tamara Henderson in the Australian TV series ...
* Old Joyce -
Judi Farr Judith Mary Stuart Farr (5 October 1938 – 30 June 2023), also credited as Judy Farr, was an Australian actress of theatre, film and television, with a career spanning some seven decades, she was best known for several situation comedy roles ...
* Young Joyce - Eliza Logan * Bertie Jenkins - Joel McIlroy * Father Keogh -
Simon Chilvers Simon Chilvers (born 5 April 1939) is an English-born, Australia-based television actor. Early life Chilvers was born in London in 1939, and discovered art as a young child, drawing images of planes flying overhead during World War II. He att ...
* Lofty Morgan -
Christopher James Baker Christopher James Baker is an Australian actor known for his work as Brain Wave (character), Henry King Sr. / Brainwave in the DC Universe (streaming service), DC Universe series ''Stargirl (TV series), Stargirl''. Early life Baker grew up in Au ...
* John -
Ned Manning Ned Manning is an Australian playwright, actor and teacher. His film credits include the lead role in '' Dead End Drive-In'' (1986), and television credits include '' The Shiralee'' and ''Prisoner'', and '' Brides of Christ''. His plays include ...


Episodes

1999. Six ageing former POWs who spent three and a half years in Changi are each preparing for the reunion of 'The Secret 9', the name of the close-knit group of six POWs whose mutual support and friendship sustained them throughout their experiences in the camp. Since the end of the war, the group have held reunions every nine years and this upcoming one will most likely be their last. As the date of the reunion draws near, each of the veterans find his memories ignited by a sight or sound associated with their traumatic experiences.


Reception

The series ''Changi'' was a ratings success. The final episode, which aired on ABC-TV on Sunday evening on 18 November 2001, was the second-most watched show that night in Australia. Reviews for the series were mixed. Robin Oliver, writing in ''
The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...
'', declared the series to be "immensely satisfying" and Robert Fidgeon, in Melbourne's ''
Herald Sun The ''Herald Sun'' is a Conservatism, conservative daily tabloid newspaper based in Melbourne, Australia, published by The Herald and Weekly Times, a subsidiary of News Corp Australia, itself a subsidiary of the American Rupert Murdoch, Murd ...
'', wrote that it was "one of the finest pieces of drama ever produced (in Australia)" Michael Fitzgerald, writing in ''
Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
'', said that the series, despite some flaws, was "the finest, most thoughtful local drama since Australia's miniseries heyday in the 1980s... The series isn't about the history of Changi, it's about the idea of Changi and how it refracts through the years to become something repressed, mythologised and feared.... Most movingly, it's about the transfer of memory to the next generation." Christopher Bantick, writing in Brisbane's '' Courier Mail'', was scathing in his review about the series. He said that the series "is a long way from representing fairly or in a balanced way what went on in the notorious camp and is close to being a profligate waste of public money". Bantick referred to ''Changi'' as "sick" and a "bomb" that "deserves to fail." Stephen Garton, writing in 2002 in the ''Journal of Australian Studies'', believed the series to be a missed opportunity. In his view, Changi portrayed "an enfeebled narrative of the POW experience – narrow, parochial, inward-looking, blind to the complexities of former prisoner's voices but attuned to a nostalgic vision... of the
Anzac Legend The ANZAC spirit or ANZAC legend is a concept which suggests that Australian and New Zealand soldiers possess shared characteristics, specifically the qualities those soldiers allegedly exemplified on the battlefields of World War I. These ...
."


Controversy and criticism

The series ''Changi'' attracted considerable controversy when it first aired in 2001 and drew both praise and criticism from military historians, media commentators and real-life former POWs. Peter Stanley, principal historian at the
Australian War Memorial The Australian War Memorial (AWM) is a national war memorial, war museum, museum and archive dedicated to all Australians who died as a result of war, including peacekeeping duties. The AWM is located in Campbell, Australian Capital Territory, C ...
1987–2007, was highly critical of the series: "It gives viewers a misleading and unrealistic idea of the POW experience and of their captors. The danger is that people either believe what they see on television or don't know what's wrong and right." According to Stanley, the series contained a number of historical inaccuracies. * The massacre of POWs that occurs in the final episode never happened in the real Changi. * POWs are depicted as saluting Japanese officers whereas in reality, they were required to bow. Also, the real-life Changi in-mates had to endure frequent roll-calls ('Tenko') which do not occur in the TV version. * In the series, POWs and Japanese guards mingle frequently but in reality, the prisoners and the Japanese kept apart and rarely saw each other, the POWs having to run the camp themselves. * In the series, the POWs mock their captors in a camp concert but according to Stanley, that could never have happened as 'Japanese guards were very conscious of preserving their dignity. In real POW camps, prisoners dared not make fun of Japanese guards. It just simply wouldn't have happened.' * The camp is portrayed in the series as quite small, housing only a few hundred prisoners but the real Changi was much larger, being a permanent or temporary home to many thousands of Allied POWs. A number of real-life former in-mates of Changi were interviewed for their opinions on the series and the responses varied greatly. Some ex-POWs declared the series to be a moving, accurate portrayal whilst others dismissed it as unrealistic, overly sanitised, inaccurate and guilty of failing to depict the hardships of the real camp. 'Half of its rubbish!', declared one former POW. Historian Michael Cathcart praised the series, calling it 'a moving series that captured the suffering and comradeship that were at the heart of the prisoner of war experience...and a celebration of the powerful egalitarian spirit that is the Australian story' John Doyle defended his work. 'It's a series that runs the risk of offending everyone and satisfying no one'. Doyle argued that the series 'was not history but art – an effort to be honest to the spirit not the facts of Changi. When you try to deal with such a tricky subject, you have to abandon naturalism.' Doyle claimed that he wanted the series to show how 'Australian humour and mateship allowed Australians to survive in greater numbers than other groups of prisoners.'


Awards

The production won the
Logie Award The TV Week Logie Awards (known colloquially as The Logies) is an annual ceremony celebrating and honouring the best shows and stars in Television in Australia, Australian television, sponsored and organised by the magazine ''TV Week''. The eve ...
for the Most Outstanding Mini Series/Telemovie in
2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...
. Actors Geoff Morrell,
Matthew Newton Matthew Joseph Newton (born 22 January 1977) is an Australian actor, writer, and director, and son of Australian TV personalities Bert and Patti Newton. He made his motion picture debut in 2000 in the Australian film ‘ Looking For Alibrand ...
and Bud Tingwell were also nominated for Most Outstanding Actor Logies, and the mini series also received 3
AFI Award The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Awards, known as the AACTA Awards, are presented annually by the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). The awards recognise excellence in the film and television industry, ...
nominations.


See also

*
King Rat (Clavell novel) ''King Rat'' is a 1962 novel by James Clavell and the author's literary debut. Set during World War II, the novel describes the struggle for survival of American, Australian, British, Dutch and New Zealander prisoner of war, prisoners of war ...
, set in Changi


References


External links


ABC Changi website
* {{IMDb title, 0274245, Changi Changi Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming 2000s Australian television miniseries Australian military television series World War II television drama series 2001 Australian television series debuts 2001 Australian television series endings